1. Field of the Invention
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a liquid crystal display.
2. Discussion of the Background
The liquid crystal display is one of the most widely used flat panel displays. This type of display device may comprise of two display panels with electric field generating electrodes formed therein and a liquid crystal layer formed therebetween. The transmittance of light which passes through the liquid crystal layer is controlled by applying voltage to the electrodes to change the alignment of the liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer.
An upper panel and a lower panel of the liquid crystal display are supported by a spacer disposed between the two panels to maintain a cell gap therebetween.
Generally, in case of a liquid crystal display formed by a liquid crystal dropping method, liquid crystal is dropped to be formed one of two panels and a sealing line enclosing the peripherals of the display area is formed on the other panel in which a column spacer is formed. Thereafter, the upper panel and the lower panel are attached to each other.
The cross-sectional area and density of the spacer of this liquid crystal panel may influence the pressure tolerance of the spacer and liquid crystal dropping margin. Pressure tolerance refers to a degree of supporting a predetermined intensity of pressure. The larger pressure tolerance refers to the larger degree of supporting a larger pressure.
If the pressure tolerance of the spacer is low, the spacer may be squashed and may not maintain a constant cell gap, which may cause a smear problem. In order to prevent the smear problem, the pressure tolerance of the spacer may be increased. However, if the density of the spacer is increased, the compressive strain of the spacer may be decreased. When the compressive strain of the spacer is decreased, the liquid crystal dropping margin is also decreased. Further, it is hard to control the amount of dropping liquid crystal, and the amount of liquid crystal may be insufficient. As a result, an empty space between the upper panel and the lower panel which is not filled with the liquid crystal may be formed, which results in the light leakage.
Generally, a main spacer that maintains a cell gap between the upper display panel and the lower display panel may be disposed in a pixel area which displays a predetermined color at least affecting the light transmittance of the liquid crystal display, and another sub spacer having different pressure tolerance from the main spacer may be disposed in all pixels.
In this case, in the pixel area of a predetermined color in which the main spacer may be disposed, the pressure tolerance of the spacer becomes much bigger than pixel areas of other colors. Therefore, the amount of dropping liquid crystal may be insufficient.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.